Secured Master Card to Platinum

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone,

I had a question with hopes you guys can help me answer it...

So i had very bad credit, and have applied for the Secured Master Card from Cap One and was approved on Jan 2015 with $200 limit and a $49 deposit to get it.

On July 2nd, 2016 I have received an automatic CIL of $300 which brought my total credit card limit to $500.  I have tracked my credit score on the free Cap One Tracker and it kept showing around 700.  I then decided to pay for the MyFico scores in November of this year, and received the following:

718 Equifax

735 TransUnion

709 Experian

I dont have a mortgage nor do i pay rent, i have used the card maybe a total of 7-8 times and usually once a month with no more than $40-50.  I have two more department credit cards for $300 each which gives me a total of $1100 total credit across the board.  

I have now tried to get a CIL on my Secured Master Card but no luck... And from what I have read, it seems that its hard to do or impossible on Secured Credit Cards.

I tried to apply for another credit card from Discover in November, but was denied and took a mark to a hard check.

I did a bit more research and I believe that I can apply and get the Capital One Platinum Card (which is weird as my Secured also states Platinum on it), i have compared the cards and they are identical, but I think the Platinum is Unsecured and should allow me to get a bigger credit limit.

What do you think?  Should I do this as I would like to have a total of 2500 of available credit across the board eventually to get a better credit score.

I thought that my credit score is good and i was invincible, but it doesnt mean anything when i only have 1 year now of total credit history.

How can i better my chances and improve my score if i want to eventually be able to buy a car or a house with good APR?

Thanks!

[gdale6]

I would wait till next month and then app for the QS1 instead of the platinum unsecured. Welcome to the board

[stellar]

Check the prequal for Capone as well as other banks.

[sjt]

---

@stellar wrote:

Check the prequal for Capone as well as other banks.

---

+1

With your scores you should be able to get other cards. Id check Capital One and look into the Quicksilver, not Quicksilver One, Chase, Citi, Amex, and BofA.

[Anonymous]

Id apply for another Cap card and wait and see if your current card unsecures..its been over a year so yiu should ask CapOne whats going on (makes no sense having two of them same cards)

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your great replies, in regards to your comments:‎

I would wait till next month and then app for the QS1 instead of the platinum unsecured. Welcome to the board

 I dont want to pay any annual fees, and with the QS1 there is a fee of $39 annually.

Check the prequal for Capone as well as other banks.

+1

With your scores you should be able to get other cards. Id check Capital One and look into the Quicksilver, not Quicksilver One, Chase, Citi, Amex, and BofA.

Scores dont matter when i dont have any other revolving credit (car, mortgage) and a history of 3 years or less of credit....

Id apply for another Cap card and wait and see if your current card unsecures..its been over a year so yiu should ask CapOne whats going on (makes no sense having two of them same cards)

I tried two months ago (although its been less than 2 years two moths ago when i tried) and was denied.  For the current card to unsecure, i read a post recently from someone about the graduation, but it seems that they randomly or slowly choose people from that thread.  It seems that there are others who have had the card for 2 years or more and have not yet been graduated.

I have recently applied for a Discover It card and lets see what happens....

[#7]

I would wait till next month and then app for the QS1 instead of the platinum unsecured. Welcome to the board

[#8]

Check the prequal for Capone as well as other banks.

[#9]

+1

With your scores you should be able to get other cards. Id check Capital One and look into the Quicksilver, not Quicksilver One, Chase, Citi, Amex, and BofA.

Scores dont matter when i dont have any other revolving credit (car, mortgage) and a history of 3 years or less of credit....

[#10]

Id apply for another Cap card and wait and see if your current card unsecures..its been over a year so yiu should ask CapOne whats going on (makes no sense having two of them same cards)

[#11]

I tried two months ago (although its been less than 2 years two moths ago when i tried) and was denied.  For the current card to unsecure, i read a post recently from someone about the graduation, but it seems that they randomly or slowly choose people from that thread.  It seems that there are others who have had the card for 2 years or more and have not yet been graduated.

[#12]

I have recently applied for a Discover It card and lets see what happens....

[Anonymous]

Just found out that my Discover It and Capital One (QS) were denied today.  So thats two more inquiries, which gives me a grand total of 6 in past two years... thats a few points of my credit score now...

[fltireguy]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I had a question with hopes you guys can help me answer it...

So i had very bad credit, and have applied for the Secured Master Card from Cap One and was approved on Jan 2015 with $200 limit and a $49 deposit to get it.

On July 2nd, 2016 I have received an automatic CIL of $300 which brought my total credit card limit to $500.  I have tracked my credit score on the free Cap One Tracker and it kept showing around 700.  I then decided to pay for the MyFico scores in November of this year, and received the following:

718 Equifax

735 TransUnion

709 Experian

I dont have a mortgage nor do i pay rent, i have used the card maybe a total of 7-8 times and usually once a month with no more than $40-50.  I have two more department credit cards for $300 each which gives me a total of $1100 total credit across the board.  

I have now tried to get a CIL on my Secured Master Card but no luck... And from what I have read, it seems that its hard to do or impossible on Secured Credit Cards.

I tried to apply for another credit card from Discover in November, but was denied and took a mark to a hard check.

I did a bit more research and I believe that I can apply and get the Capital One Platinum Card (which is weird as my Secured also states Platinum on it), i have compared the cards and they are identical, but I think the Platinum is Unsecured and should allow me to get a bigger credit limit.

What do you think?  Should I do this as I would like to have a total of 2500 of available credit across the board eventually to get a better credit score.

I thought that my credit score is good and i was invincible, but it doesnt mean anything when i only have 1 year now of total credit history.

How can i better my chances and improve my score if i want to eventually be able to buy a car or a house with good APR?

Thanks!

---

A few ideas. 

Though, you say that you did have very bad credt - apparently that isnt the case now, your scores are decent..

Chase - Freedom, or Amazon Visa. They are usually pretty easy as far as approvals go. 

BofA - apply for a CashRewards Visa. You'll either get approved, or they will counter you with the 99/500 offer (whch WILL unsecure in as little as 5 months, and generally you will get a nice CLI at that time as well). ANother good bank, and the card wil grow

Join NFCU, or PenFed.   They will do wonders for you. just look at all of the posts on both of them.  EXTREELY friendly to rebuilders (esp. NFCU)

[Anonymous]

Nope, denied on those too...

I'll try with my Credit Union see if that helps, or get on my brothers AU list or something....

[sjt]

Im surprised you dont have any pre-qual offers. Are you over 21?

I think you should hang on to your Cap1 secured card regardless if you get another card. The main reason is for age. Cap1 secured cards do not graduate, however there have been reports of that happening to a few folks. I think the "graduation" program will happen but its in a "pilot program" stage.

Also, I think its a great idea to look into credit unions.

Can you tell us more about your credit profile. How old are the store cards, any baddies, utilization, etc.